


The Conductor

by therudestflower



Series: The Commuter AU [7]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Gen, Probs most enjoyed by readers of The Theory Multiplicity, References to canon level, Therapy, This is so deep AU tbh but good if you'd enjoy Isaac Lahey in any verse getting therapy?, or Both, or The Commuter AU, since they are all one universe kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-02-07 12:12:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21457870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therudestflower/pseuds/therudestflower
Summary: Isaac finally wins the game he's secretly playing with his therapist, where he tries to get her to lose control of her calm therapy face. It's less fun than he expected.
Relationships: Chris Argent/Peter Hale, Isaac Lahey/Stiles Stilinski
Series: The Commuter AU [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1121325
Comments: 6
Kudos: 69





	The Conductor

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place about 4 months before the beginning of The Theory of Multiplicity (Chris and Peter's daughter is about 4 months old in that story). So no crossed universes YET). 
> 
> Cliff notes of this verse in the end notes

The waiting room for Diana's office was probably the worst waiting room Isaac had been in outside of Indiana. It wasn't even a room. It was just a hallway in the second floor of an office building south of downtown Austin with two wooden chairs right outside Diana's office door. A small circular white noise machine kept Isaac from hearing anything of the previous session though he did try sometimes when he was bored.

  
The hallway was narrow and Isaac's feet could touch the opposite wall when he stretched. He brought it up to Diana during his first appointment.

  
"You should really have a different office," he said, not even five minutes into the first session.

  
Stiles called this mode "Aggro Isaac." It had gotten rarer as he got older, but he'd reliably being in this mode during the first session with his last three therapists. Reina and Carl handled it well enough, but whatshername, the one between Reina and Carl, called him afterward and told him he was not invited back for a second session.

  
Diana just frowned quietly. "Why do you say that?"

  
"You don't even have a waiting room. There are no windows, it's a tiny fucking hallway and the chairs suck."  
  


"You were uncomfortable waiting for this session?"

"Yeah, obviously."

"How early were you?"

"What?"

"How early were you?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"Hmm. So you were uncomfortable for the fifteen minutes preceding this session."

Isaac hadn't spent a ton of his life in therapy. He'd been forced to go for year in high school until he dropped out, but that was mostly about not getting into fights, and half the time Mr. Gompers let him do his homework. He only started going voluntarily right before they left Chicago, and saw Carl sporadically before Beah was born. But he knew the tricks. Restating the obvious could be to make sure the therapist understood what had been said, or to force him to hear how stupid he was. Chris did the former, but started prefacing it with "I want to make sure I understand," when he figured out that Isaac was used to it being a trick. Isaac knew that Diana probably wasn't going to make fun of him, at least in this first session, but he was still annoyed.

"Yeah. So if all your clients are in bad moods, it's not because their lives suck, it's because your waiting arrangement is sociopathic. "  
  


Diana nodded. Isaac waited for her to tell him that her waiting room wasn't changing, so he could just stop seeing her, or ask why he didn't just leave and in face he could leave now, or make fun of him for not being able to handle sitting in an air-conditioned hallway with a roof.  
  


"You were uncomfortable because there was no window and the space was small," Diana repeated.  
  


"That's what I said," Isaac snapped.  
  


"How do you usually handle being uncomfortable with the space you are in?"  
  


"I don't. I just don't go there."  
  


Diana nodded. "So your option is to not come here anymore--which to be clear, is something that is your choice but not something I am hoping for--or we can work on ways to cope with being uncomfortable with the space you're in. Is that a goal you have?"  
  


According to Chris and Stiles, that should be one of his main goals.  
  


"My dad wants me to be able to get on an airplane," Isaac said, feeling Aggro Isaac step back.  
  


"Do you want to get on an airplane?"  
  


"No," Isaac said.  
  


"Why don't we talk about what you want."  
  


Isaac didn't do that, he instead asked books on her bookshelf but stopped when Diana started making a list and he had to confess he had no intention of doing _homework._ But eventually, weeks later, he identified one thing he wanted.  
  


"I want to be less afraid," he said.  
  


"What are you afraid of?"

  
Several very specific things came to mind immediately, but Isaac just shrugged and Diana nodded. "We can work general for a while," she said.  
  


The inside of Diana's office wasn't bad. She had a couch that didn't collapse under him, and water bottles in a mini-fridge and splashy paintings hanging behind her. Stiles wanted to help him find a new therapist a few months ago when everything happened, but Erica and Boyd had been the one to find Reina for him all those years ago, so he send them an email with the name of their insurance and zipcode with no context.

Erica's realty skills were transferrable to finding anything at all. Erica emailed back three days later with a list of notes like "_LGBTQ training" _and _"Equidistant to your house and work" _and _"wrote a book about C-PTSD" _and "_Yelp reviews says they have snacks" _

Diana sat with her feet tucked under her and Isaac spent a lot of time staring at her knees. She wore hiking shorts and had silver hair she wore in a braid, and during extra stupid moments Isaac thought his mom might look like her if she got this old. If she ever started wearing pants Isaac might stop coming. He was looking at them when she asked, "Can I ask why I haven't seen you for a while?"  
  


His defenses crept up. "I thought I was allowed to choose when I saw you."  
  


"You are. You are not mandated to see me, and you can stop any time, or see me as often as our schedules allow. However, we have been seeing each other reliably once a week for the past few months, so I'm curious."  
  


Isaac shrugged. "I just didn't want to come two weeks ago."  
  


"Okay."  
  


"But last week it wasn't my fault, I was going to see my dad."

"I'm not assigning blame. I didn't realize you had a trip to see your dad planned."  
  


"Um, yeah. I guess I didn't."  
  


"Why did you go see him?"  
  


"I'm allowed to see my dad whenever I want," Isaac said.  
  


"You are." Diana waited.  
  


Isaac waited. He didn't know why he was drawing this out. It wasn't like he was never going to tell Diana why he went to Chicago.  
  


"He has a new baby," he said.  
  


Diana was an expert at keeping her face neutral. He went through a phase a few months ago when he realized this, where he told her graphic details about the freezer or broken bones or how Creek's face would contort just to try to get a look of disgust to pass over her face but it never happened. Instead, she nodded and frowned sometimes.

Eventually, she said, "Am I not reacting the way you expect me to?"  
  


"No you're fucking not," he snapped. "These are fucking horrible things I'm telling you."  
  


"They are," she agreed. "How do people normally react?"  
  


"I don't normally tell people this shit."  
  


"Have you ever told anyone with this much detail before?" she asked.  
  


Isaac went to get pissed at her when he realized, that no. He hadn't. Not even Reina. Not even Stiles. Not even his dad.  
  


Anyway.  
  


All this to say, he laughed out loud at the complete look of surprise that passed over her face.  
  


"Oh!" she said. "Your dad has a new baby?"  
  
"Yep," he said.  
  


Diana laughed. "How did that happen?"  
  


"Oh you know," he hemmed, "Someone had sex. I don't know, Diana, you went to fifth grade."  
  


"I did," Diana agreed, "Did you not know that your father was having a baby?"  
  


"You think my dad didn't tell me about his new baby?"  
  


"No, I expect your dad told you about his baby as soon as he could."  
  


Isaac nodded. "He told me like--six months ago? He adopted her."  
  


"I see."  
  


"She's a baby. Her name is Josephine Bianca Argent-Hale. Her mom was in Chris and Peter's wine tasting class. So you know, she could have been pregnant and drinking. So that's fucked up."  
  


"Are you worried about the baby's welfare?"  
  


Isaac rolled her eyes. "No. Fucking--no. She's going to be fine. She was born early but they were able to hold her and they didn't put her on the machines or anything."  
  


"That's great."

"Right. And Chris and Peter have already taken her home. Bianca lives like, twenty minutes away, but I don't think she's involved. Bianca is her mom. She didn't want her. She's like, twenty-three. So you know, I mean. That's probably for the best. If you don't want a kid, you end up fucking destroying that kid, so at least we know my dad wants her and won't do that."  
  


"You seem angry."  
  
"...I don't know. I guess I am."  
  


"Do you know why?"  
  


"No. I'm not angry at my dad, or the baby or Stiles or anyone."  
  


"If you're not angry at a specific person, are you angry at a situation?"  
  


"What situation? My dad and Peter wanted a baby, they told us that. They had someone who wanted to give them her baby, so they got her. Everyone wins."  
  


"Okay. So--"  
  


"I mean, Jesus, there should be a fucking law that anyone who doesn't want their kid has to give them to people who do want a baby."  
  


Diana was silent. She loved this move. Stiles had told him it was a major therapy move, so he was on to her.  
  


"What?"  
  


Diana said, "It's okay if you're angry."  
  


"Why would I be angry?"  
  
"I have some ideas of why you would be angry right now, but I don't want to--"  
  


"Just fucking tell me."  
  


"That's not how I work."  
  


"Then why would you _tell me_ you have theories about why I'm angry."  
  


"Maybe because I want you to know that your reaction to your sister's adoption can be logically understood by another person."  
  
Isaac stared at Diana's knees. She had a looping scar on the right one that she told him was from getting a knee replacement in college. He asked her why she wore shorts when she had it, and she just said, "I like shorts." 

  
"Allison keeps calling her our sister, too. She's really into it. She made a picture of all five of us her profile picture on Instagram. It's just weird. I have two sisters now. I didn't think I'd ever have a sister. I don't know, even saying that makes it sound like I thought about it which I didn't. I mean, it was made really fucking clear to me that I was a mistake. I was born eight years after my brother, so even if everyone didn't _tell me all the fucking time_ I would have been able to figure that out."  
  


"You were told you were a mistake?"  
  


"Oh come on Diana, are you surprised by that?"  
  


"I'm sorry to say that I'm not, but that doesn't mean it was okay."  
  


"No one is going to tell Josephine she was a mistake."  
  


"No?"  
  
"'No?' _No._ My dad would never say that to anyone."  
  


"Do you think that's why you're angry?"  
  


"Why would that make me angry? That's the way it's supposed to be."  
  


"But that's not the way it was for you."  
  


"Yeah no shit. Have you been paying any attention the last year?"  
  


"Yes I have."  
  


"Oh great, I guess I won't sue you for being shitty at your job."  
  


"I've heard that you didn't feel cared for until you met your dad and Allison. And you've expressed that you wonder who you would be if Chris raised you from birth."  
  


"So what?"  
  


"Why do you think you're angry, Isaac?"  
  


"It sounds like you already know."  
  


"It sounds like you do too. It's okay to be angry. It's okay if that's not the only thing you're feeling, too."  
  


"No, it's not. I'm not three years old. I can't be jealous of a baby."  
  


"Why not?"  
  


"Because she's a _baby._ She didn't do anything wrong. She just got born and she just got to be Chris' kid right away. That's fine. Good for her. I'm not jealous of Josephine. People who are jealous of babies are fucking sociopaths and shouldn't be around them."  
  


"Being jealous of Josephine isn't about Josephine, it's about you. She is getting something you want."  
  


Isaac blinked and realized he'd been zoning out and staring at Diana's scarred knee.  
  


"Do you know," he said slowly, "all the things I would be able to do, all the things that wouldn't be wrong with my brain and my body, if Chris was just my dad from the beginning?"  
  


Diana stared at him, silent.  
  


"I'm not jealous of a baby."  
  


"Okay."  
  


"I'm not."

Chris figured out when he drives for more than fifteen minutes at a time on a weekly basis without Isaac telling him why. He reliably calls Isaac when he makes his weekly delivery to Waco. Diana's office is in Georgetown--far enough that he doesn't too much about her running into Stiles in the Psychology building--and Chris started calling him ten minutes into his drive home months ago. Isaac never told him he was driving home from therapy. 

Isaac felt resentful as he climbed into his car. There was no way Chris was calling him today, not with a new baby. He let himself get good and worked up picturing him cradling Josephine on the couch. It was so deeply irrational that when Chris called him at the exact time he always did, he was equal parts relieved and angry to have been proven wrong. He fumbled for his phone and hit accept and put him on speaker. 

"Chris?" 

"Hey sweetheart," Chris said. In the background, he could hear Peter say something. Chris sighed. "I have just been reminded that you are not ten days old and may not appreciate being called sweetheart." 

"No," Isaac agreed. "We missed that window." 

Chris sometimes acted sensitive about reminders that he hadn't been present for the first sixteen years of Isaac's life, but it wasn't like either of them had any choice about it. Today Isaac realized he'd said that not to be realistic, but to activate that part of Chris. It didn't help though. The moment of silence on the other side was more embarrassing and painful than gratifying. 

"I do call you sweetheart in my head," Chris said, "I just don't say it out loud. But I do in my head. Just as I think you think of me as your dad in your head even when you call me Chris, right?" 

God, he sounded hopeful. "I do," Isaac said quickly. "I just..." He trailed off.

"I know," Chris said. "We didn't talk about what this must be like for you, when you were here. I'm sorry about that. I know it must be difficult." 

Isaac had exhausted all the denial in Diana's office. "You would have adopted me if my parents asked you to, right? When I was baby." 

"Yes," Chris said, "I would have--if I had a time machine I would have gone back and kidnapped you." 

Isaac was silent for a minute, and when Chris asked about it he said he was merging. He pretended to merge until he said, "I wouldn't know how to play hockey if you had done that." 

"That's true," Chris acknowledged, "I don't know how to skate. You got that from your brother and father. You also wouldn't know nearly as much about the civil war as you do, or like any of the music you listened to with your mother the same way. You have an ability to slow down and anticipate easily overlooked problems that Allison and I do not."

"Right," Isaac said, "But I'd probably be able to get on a plane. I'd probably never have gone to jail." 

"There's plenty that Allison can and can't do because I was her father from the start," Chris said, "It will be the same for Josephine."

"It's not the same thing, Dad" Isaac said. 

"I know," Chris said, "A great deal of my mental time is spent figuring out how I could have taken you sooner. But I love you, and Josephine doesn't change that at all." 

"I know," Isaac said, and found he meant it. "And it's not like I'm a three-year-old who thinks she's going to break my toys. Right?" Chris was silent. "_Right?_" 

"Right. That said, you weren't particularly attached to the blanket on your bed, were you?" 

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you who haven't read other content in this verse, the cliff notes: All human AU in which Isaac met Allison completely by chance, was adopted by Chris shortly before he was 18 (mostly doesn't call him dad), got together with Stiles when they were in their mid-twenties, now late twenties and living in Austin, TX while Stiles works on a PhD, and is raising a daughter with Malia and Stiles (but neither in a relationship with Malia). 
> 
> MTV who?


End file.
